Know Diabetes. Fight Diabetes

Be supportiveWe’re a supportive and welcoming community. Please keep it friendly, informative and helpful. The community is primarily a place to give and receive support. You don’t have to offer advice but it can help you feel part of the community. Equally, welcoming new members can help encourage people to feel included and inspired to share.

Be respectfulWe want everyone to feel comfortable sharing personal experiences or opinions. Please be respectful of those who’ve opened up, and courteous and sympathetic in your responses.

Think about the tone of your posts. Strongly opinionated or judgmental posts can be intimidating, as can proposing an absolute truth for others.

Avoid CAPS or excessive punctuation as this can come across as shouting.

Be sensitiveMany members who are using the forum might be going through a difficult time, and emotions can be heightened so please bear this in mind. Some people posting might be feeling vulnerable, sensitive, or defensive as well as a number of other emotions.

Recognise differencesWe're a diverse community and many members will have different experiences and views of diabetes and its management. Please try to recognise and respect that everyone will experience diabetes differently.

We like healthy debate, but any discussions have got to be conducted with respect and tolerance for others.

Concern for othersIf you’re concerned about the well-being of another forum member, please alert the moderators using the ‘report’ button at the bottom of each post or email us at support.forurm@diabetes.org.uk and we’ll follow our safeguarding procedure.
There might not always be a moderator online, so if you have an immediate concern about the well-being of a member, encourage them to contact Samaritans on 116 123 who can offer support 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Keep to the topicPlease stick to the original topic and tone of a thread as a courtesy to the original poster, and for clarity. Be mindful, if a new topic of discussion arises from within a thread, start a new thread with a relevant title or ask the moderators to split a thread if a digression becomes clear after several further responses.

Equally, your own thread may contain lots of questions about a topic. But if you have a question about something new, it is best to start a new thread, rather than posting a question about something else, in one of your old threads.
This can make it easier for other members to understand what your query is.

Try to summarise and keep it simpleEveryone’s experience, knowledge and confidence is different. Some questions or responses might need long or technical answers. But try to be aware that sometimes a really complex post might interrupt the flow of support, or seem daunting to the original poster.

Smilies and jokesSmilies can be used and can help avoid misinterpretation. Feel free to use them as necessary. Appropriate humour, jokes and light-hearted posting is welcome.

Units of measurementFor members to offer the best support, it’s helpful to be clear on the various units used in blood glucose testing. Units of measurements can vary depending on what test has been done or what country you live in.

Please, where you can, try to include the units of measurements when discussing results. It will help other members to offer the best support, and avoid confusion.

Links If sharing content from other websites, such as news articles, recipes, jokes, health research etc. we ask that you insert a link to the relevant web-page.

Some information online is free to use and share. However, as this varies depending on the source, we ask as a practical precaution that users always post a link.

Engaged to answer questions about Diabetes UK & communicate member’s thoughts and ideas through the organisation

Know Diabetes. Fight Diabetes

Your responsibilities
By joining the forum you have a responsibility not to post any content or material which breach our user guidelines or terms and rules. Our guidelines and terms apply to material which is shared both publicly AND privately.

No one should:

Language

Use sexually explicit or inappropriate language.

Curse, swear or use obscenities towards others.

Make degrading, derogatory or disparaging remarks about any person or group.

Post material to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person.

Act with the intention to cause conflict or division within the community, inclusive of posting inflammatory messages or with intent to provoke emotional responses from others.

Promote discrimination or victimise, harass, degrade or intimidate an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, political orientation, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, or disability (inclusive of diabetes type).

Post material that is likely to deceive or falsely mislead any person.

Post content which threatens, promotes, or instigates violence or death to others.

Promote, incite, solicit, or provide information about any illegal activity.

Impersonate any person, or misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person, group or organization.

Use the forum to damage or obtain unauthorised access to any data, or other information, of any third party.

Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as contractual duty or a duty of confidence (for example if you have signed a disclosure agreement).

Content

Promote sexually explicit material

Post or share material which is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory.

Post sensitive or confidential information or encourage other users to post sensitive or confidential information.

Publicly post content regarding to or in reference of specific moderator actions.

There will not always be a moderator online, so in order that we become aware of all concerns, we ask our members to be vigilant and to escalate all concerns using the ‘Report’ button which is present on every message. This aids our moderators in acting quickly and efficiently to resolve violations once they are available. This action is completely anonymous to other forum members and any such activity will be kept strictly confidential by Diabetes UK.

Medical adviceYou should only relate to your own experiences. Never tell other members to adjust medication without them first speaking to a member of their healthcare team.

Posts should never be considered as a substitute for a medical diagnosis, treatment or medical advice.

If you require emergency medical advice or assistance please call 999 If it’s less urgent then please call the 24 hour NHS 111 service on 111 if you’re in England. If you’re in Wales please contact NHS Direct Wales on 0845 4647, and if you are in Scotland you can call NHS24 on 08454 24 24 24. Alternatively speak to your GP or healthcare team.

Posting a research survey or questionnaireWe’re an active and engaged community. Academic institutions, researcher bodies or healthcare professionals may make a request to post research surveys, which may lead to positive change in the treatment, prevention or cure of diabetes.

All surveys must provide an ‘Ethics Committee Approval’. This must be a letter of confirmation from your institutions Ethics Committee, to confirm that your research study is ethical. Once you have approval, you can request permission to post your research via the ‘Contact Us’ page or by emailing support.forum@diabetes.org.uk .
Any surveys or questionnaires that have not provided Ethics Committee Approval will be removed until approval has been given.

Last edited by a moderator: Feb 25, 2020

Engaged to answer questions about Diabetes UK & communicate member’s thoughts and ideas through the organisation

Know Diabetes. Fight Diabetes

Your accountYour user name and password must only be used by you. Don’t share your login details with others or allow others to sign in as you.
If a post is made using your username and password it will be considered to have been posted by you.

By reporting posts, you will help our moderators identify offensive, inappropriate or disruptive posts as soon as a member of the team is available.

You will receive an alert once the team have reviewed the information to confirm that it has been resolved. Sometimes, this may take time.

Concern for yourself or others
If you’re concerned about a message you have received or the well-being of another forum member, please alert the moderators using the ‘report’ button at the bottom of any post or private message, or email us at support.forum@diabetes.org.uk. We’ll make sure we take any appropriate steps to keep someone safe.

There might not always be a moderator online, therefore if you have an immediate concern about the well-being of a member, encourage them to contact Samaritans on 116 123 who can offer support 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Know Diabetes. Fight Diabetes

Profile postsYou have the option to write a post on your own profile, or the profile of another user. Profile posts are public and can be viewed by all users.

If you have a general question, we advise not to post on a profile post. It is better to post it in the message boards, where more people will be able to answer. You can use the board you feel is most appropriate, or the General Messageboard if you are unsure.

Conversations/Private MessagesConversations are a way of sending a private message to another member. Please act responsibly when messaging other members privately. If people don’t want to be contacted this way, please respect their wishes.

If you receive a private message which you think is inappropriate, or doesn’t meet our guidelines, please ‘report’ this to the moderators immediately or email our team at support.forum@diabetes.org.uk .

Ignore
If you find another members comments are repeatedly having a general negative impact on you, i.e. difference of opinion, you can choose to ignore them. By ignoring them you’ll no longer see any posts or comments by this member.

To ‘ignore’ a member, go to your Profile Page, select ‘People You Ignore’ and enter the name of the member whose posts you no longer wish to view.

Any targeted negative interactions, should be reported to a moderator through the process outlined.

FollowYou can also choose to ‘follow’ other members. This can be helpful if you want to change your privacy settings, and only allow certain individuals to view your profile page or contact you by private message.

To follow a member, go to your Profile Page, select ‘People You Follow’ and enter the name of the member who you wish to follow.

Know Diabetes. Fight Diabetes

The Moderator TeamOur moderator team ensure the forum is a welcoming place where people can continue to safely support each other.

They are volunteers who give their time to help make sure the forum is a supportive place to be. Along with our users, they help thousands of people who use our forum to share their experiences, get advice and find emotional support about living with diabetes.

When we moderateThe team is small, so we are not online at all times.
During off-peak times there might not be a moderator online. Equally, during busy periods, moderators who are online might be dealing with multiple reports.

How we moderateWe value the diversity of opinions, voices and personalities which make the forum such a vibrant, engaging and welcoming community. We recognise that disagreements sometimes occur, and the moderators try to make sure that the atmosphere in the forum remains positive and supportive for everyone.

We aim to let posts and threads stay as they were originally written as much as we can. Sometimes we might need to take action.

When this happens:

Moderators reserve the right to remove or edit any post or thread on the forum which are not in line with our user guidelines.

Moderators will notify the poster of any moderator action taken in regards to a post they have made.

In cases where no prior warning was given, moderators will notify users after an action has been taken.

Actions taken by moderators are the decision of the moderator team.

Moderators will act using only the evidence they have available to them on the forum, to determine if a post has met our guidelines or terms and rules.

The moderator team are not obliged to discuss moderator rationale with members.

Conclusions from Diabetes UK are final. This does not affect any member’s right to complain. (see ‘Complaints and compliments’ below).

Any threats towards moderators or staff will not be tolerated and may result in a temporary or permanent account ban.

Breaking the User GuidelinesMost of the time, we will send a reminder to let a member know when a guideline has been breached. We do this to maintain the safe and supportive environment of our community.

If a member continues to break guidelines, we may have to issue a warning, or in some cases, a suspension or permanent ban.

We follow a ‘three strikes’ escalation process before issuing a suspension or ban, to ensure the member is fully aware of our guidelines.

Our three strike policy

We will send a private message to the member to:

Highlight the guidelines and remind of conduct

Warn of action should further breaches occur

Issue a suspension or ban

In some circumstances, we may surpass levels in our escalation procedure and issue an immediate suspension or ban.

The length of the suspension or ban will be determined by the moderator team and Diabetes UK staff, dependent on the circumstances of the violation.

Members who attempt to re-register with new details following an account suspension or ban, will have their new account removed.

Appeal a moderator actionIf you feel you have been dealt with unfairly by the moderating team, or have any questions about how the decisions to edit or remove content that you have posted have been reached, please email us at support.forum@diabetes.org.uk and a member of the team will respond.

Complaints and complimentsWe welcome all feedback and use it to help is improve the way the forum works. If you have any feedback about our online support forum, please tell us. Email support.forum@diabetes.org.uk.